Most Alike
by thesandersonsisters
Summary: Shelby & Juliette friendship. Requested by an anon from Tumblr. My take on foreshadowing from Daisy's line to Shelby, after Shelby & Juliette's fight. "You know, it's said that the people who fight the most, are the most alike?" I probably should have broken this down into chapters, but who really cares. Rated T for language and mentions of possibly triggering event(s).


**Title: Most Alike  
Rating: T - For language & mentions of possibly triggering events  
Pairing: Friendship: Shelby Merrick & Juliette Waybourne - Higher Ground  
Notes: Goodness, I haven't written a fic in such a long time! This was requested quite a while back by an anon, whom I promised I would write this for. This was inspired by what Daisy said to Shelby, after she (Shelby) and Juliette had been fighting in the bathroom one night. Juliette had asked to use the bathroom to get ready for bed, since she was very tired, and Shelby had snapped at her, telling her to wait her turn. After Juliette left, Daisy said something along the lines of "You know, it's said that the people who argue the most, are the most alike", which made me wonder if that was meant to be any sort of foreshadowing for season 2 (if there had been one). Anyways, this is my take on what could have been foreshadowed. As I said, this would have taken place in season 2, so Katherine is absent, as she most likely would be in college. Also, I'm aware that in the 'Buddy Hike Back' that we saw Scott and David go on in one episode involved their legs being tied together by twine, however I omitted this part just because I forgot about it until I was halfway through writing this fic, haha.  
Disclaimer: As much as I would love to own this show and make more seasons of it, all rights belong to their respective owners. I only own the idea for this fic.**

"It's called the buddy hike back. What happe-"

"We know what it is." Shelby snaped, glaring at Peter from the uncomfortable couch she was being forced to sit on, next to a particular brunette.

"You don't need to be so mean." Juliette retorted, one eyebrow raised.

Shelby squinted her eyes at the younger girl, giving the slightest shake of her head. _How did Peter expect the two of them to be alone in the woods together for 2 days?_

"It's all Juliette's fault anyways; I don't know why you're punishing me too." Shelby said, clearly irritated.

"You were both fighting, so you both get punished. You know the rules here. Sophie and Daisy had to pull the two of you off each other; you're lucky neither of you got hurt."

It was all really stupid, in Shelby's opinion; Juliette had made another one of her wise ass comments, so she had thrown the pencil she was using to complete her homework across their dorm, and hit the brunette, who'd been perched on her own bed. "What the hell?" Juliette had gasped, throwing her paperback notebook at the other girl. That's when Shelby had had enough of the little princess and pushed herself off her own mattress, tackling the brunette. They had fallen off the bed and onto the wooden floor, screaming and thrashing at each other. Daisy was shouting at them to stop, and they had been clawing at one other for a solid minute before Sophie had burst in, grabbing Juliette around the waist and hauling her off the blonde. They were immediately taken to Peter's office, where their punishment of banishment to the woods for an overnight hike together was bestowed upon them.

"You girls need to stop fighting every time someone turns their back on the two of you," Peter said, exasperated. "You're both Cliffhangers, and it's about time you start acting like ones. You have to work together for this."

Shelby groaned, leaning back against the couch cushions. Crossing her arms, she bit back a gasp of pain when her hand bumped the now-forming bruise on her ribs where Juliette's bony knee had been pressing against while they were fighting.

"I still don't see why we have to do this fucking hike." Shelby grumbled under her breath while she pulled at a loose thread on her sweater sleeve.

"What was that?" Peter asked, with a raised eyebrow.

Dropping the thread, Shelby leaned forward with a shrewd smile. "Nothing," she replied through gritted teeth.

"That's what I thought. Now go back your bags, and I expect both of you back in here in no less than one hour."

The girls pushed themselves begrudgingly off the sofa and headed towards the office door.

"And no fighting!" Peter called after them.

**X**

"How long have we been walking?" Juliette whined.

Shelby bit her lip, forcing herself not to turn around and slap the younger girl across the face. She had half a mind to leave Juliette and find the campsite herself. But she knew Sophie was somewhere in the woods too, and would eventually figure out that the girls had split up. And even if she didn't, Shelby was sure that Juliette would tell Peter that she had been abandoned.

"Can you just shut up, for like, one second?" Shelby snapped, examining the map she was gripping.

Juliette fell silent as she followed Shelby up a rocky hill. The breeze was cold for this late in April, and the brunette wished she had chosen to wear jeans rather than shorts.

"Are you sure we're going the right way?" she asked, bending over to rub the goosebumps from her bare legs.

Trudging up the steep hill, Shelby pulled the compass she had shoved into the pockets of her jeans and held it closely to the map. When they finally reached the top, Shelby groaned and dropped her hands to her side, looking up at the clear sky. "I have no idea." she finally admitted.

"What?" Juliette nearly shouted, her eyebrows shooting upwards. "Do you at least have any ideaof where we _are_?"

"Look," the blonde retorted, turning to face the brunette. "If you had helped, rather than complain every 10 seconds about God knows what, maybe we wouldn't be lost!"

"I tried to help! You wouldn't let me!"

"Just…shut up. Let me figure this out."

Groaning, Juliette dropped to the ground, and slumped back against the backpack she was wearing. She pulled at the long pieces of grass that poked out in scattered patches along the rocky hill while waiting for Shelby to come up with some sort of a plan.

"Fuck!" the blonde shouted. She dropped her own heavy backpack to the ground and watched silently as it rolled down the opposite side of the hill from which they came. It rolled into a thick patch of bushes and disappeared from her view.

"Shit," she groaned, dropping to the rocky earth next to the younger girl.

The two girls sat in silence for several minutes; Juliette continued her routine of grass pulling, while Shelby stared out over the horizon at the distant mountain peaks.

"So," Juliette began, finally interrupting the quiet that had fallen over the two. "We have no idea where we are, we have no idea where Sophie is, and we have no idea when someone will find us?"

Shelby huffed out a breath and pushed herself off the ground to stand over the brunette. "Look, this isn't my fault! You should have helped me!"

"I tried to! I already told you that!" Juliette yelled back, standing up to look the blonde in the eye. "But you couldn't stop being so egocentric for one second to let me help!"

"Maybe if you had stopped complaining for one fucking second, then I would have let you!"

"You know that's a lie!"

"No it's not!" Shelby shouted, pushing Juliette's shoulder.

"Don't touch me!" the brunette retorted, pushing Shelby back.

"Don't touch me either!"

The blonde pushed Juliette with more force than she had meant to, forcing the younger girl to lose her footing and stumble backwards. Grabbing the blonde by the wrist in an attempt to regain her balance, the unsteady rocks gave out beneath Juliette's feet, and the two girls fell back into the dark cavern that had been revealed by the shifting earth.

**X**

"Shit." Shelby groaned, reaching a shaky hand up to her pounding forehead.

She attempted to look around, but quickly grew dizzy when she tried to lift her head. Dropping her head back to the hard surface beneath her, Shelby passed out.

**X**

It wasn't until several hours later that Shelby woke again. She wasn't quite as dizzy, but her head was still pounding. She realized that she was lying on her stomach, and groaned in pain when she felt something pressing against the bruise on her ribs from earlier.

Turning her face slightly, the blonde realized that the sharp object causing her pain was Juliette's elbow, which was trapped beneath her. Reaching out weakly, Shelby pulled the other girl's arm out of the way before dropping her face to the ground again.

She heard a fain moan, followed by a weak "Shelby?"

Opening her eyes too look at the girl lying on her back next to her, Shelby questioned back, "What?"

"What the hell happened?" Juliette asked, bringing her hands up to rub her eyes.

"I think," Shelby said, turning her head to look at the hole several feet above them, "that we fell into a fucking hole."

"What?" Juliette gasped, sitting up. "Oh my god! This can't be happening; not again!" She dropped her face into her hands, and Shelby could hear her taking deep shaky breaths. She remembered the last time Juliette had fallen into a cave; it had been more than a day before anyone found her, and when she got back to Horizon, she was talking about some girl she became friends with, who had apparently just been an old set of Indian bones.

'_Fucked up'_ was what Shelby remembered calling Juliette's supposed hallucinations.

Pushing herself up into a sitting position too, Shelby looked at the hole overhead once again, and estimated that they had fallen at least 15 feet; there was no way they would be able to climb out by themselves.

"Sophie!" Juliette began shouting. "We're down here! Sophie!? Please! I can't be down here again! Please!"

"Sophie's miles away! She's not going to hear you, so save you breath and quit screaming in my ear." Shelby snapped, pressing her hand against her ear to show that she didn't appreciate having her eardrums blown out.

Whirling on the blond, Juliette glared at her with tears in her eyes. "This is all your fault!" she said through gritted teeth.

"What the fuck?" Shelby glared back.

"If you didn't push me we wouldn't be stuck down here!"

"You pushed me too!"

"You pushed me first!" Juliette screamed.

"Leave me the hell alone," Shelby huffed as she got to her feet. With her fists on her hips, be began examining the walls of the cave.

"What're you doing?" Juliette muttered, slipping off her backpack as she got to her feet too.

"Looking for a way out of this damn hole!" Shelby retorted without turning around.

"The only way out is _up_ if you haven't noticed," Juliette said. "And there's no way we can climb the walls of this thing." She waved her hands exasperatedly at the walls of the cave.

Shelby turned to face Juliette, pinching the bridge of her nose with her thumb and forefinger. "Well what do you suggest we do? Because if _you _haven't noticed, no one knows we're down here, and we're nowhere near the path we were supposed to be on, so who knows how long it'll be until we're found!"

A look of blankness crossed Juliette's face as she slid slowly to the floor once again. "They're gonna think bears dragged us off. Or mountain lions…"

"Or aliens. You can never count out the aliens." Shelby muttered, recalling what Daisy had said nearly a year ago.

"What?" the brunette asked, looking up at the older girl.

"Nothing," Shelby snapped. "And there's no mountain lions around here."

The blonde watched as Juliette dropped her head to stare at her hands; her usually perfect hair was now mussed and falling out of the ponytail she was wearing. Her white hoodie was turning brown from dirt, and her shorts and hiking boots made her skinny legs look even smaller than usual. Shelby wondered if she looked just as bad.

It was getting darker by the minute, and Shelby realized that they must have been passed out for hours.

"So what exactly are we supposed to do? Sleep down here?" Shelby asked, exasperated and throwing her hands up.

"I guess." Juliette replied feebly.

Looking around the darkening cave, Shelby kicked at the rocks beneath her feet as she shouted "Son of a bitch!"

"What?" Juliette's head snapped back up to look at the older girl.

"My backpack fell down that goddamned hill! I don't have any of my stuff." She breathed, flopping down to the floor.

"Well if you hadn't gotten us lost you'd still have your bag!" the brunette snapped.

"Fuck off." Shelby spat, getting as far away from the other girl as she could. She turned her back to Juliette and leaned her head against the cave wall; she had slept in worse places than this. Shelby sat in silence listening to Juliette fumble around the other side of the small cave.

"Will you just go to sleep? You make more noise than when we have kitchens." Shelby muttered.

"Shut up." Juliette responded, before quickly growing quiet.

The blonde stared at the ceiling of the cavern; she could see a few blurry stars in the dark sky. If she strained her ears, she was able to faintly hear the crickets chirping. She hoped she was right about the mountain lion thing.

**X  
**

When Shelby woke, she had a terrible kink in the side of her neck, and her back hurt from sitting all night. Groaning, she stretched her legs and rubbed the sleep from her eyes.

The cave was a lot lighter than it had been the night before, and she was able to see that it was 11 or 12 feet wide, at the most. The walls were dark; most were covered in dirt and roots. The sun shone in through the hole, casting a large circle of light in the center of the floor.

Shelby turned and saw Juliette curled in her sleeping bag on the other side of the cavern. The blonde felt a wave of jealousy for the other girl's sleeping bag and pillow, and wished she hadn't been so stupid to not retrieve her backpack as soon as it had rolled down the hill.

Shelby picked up a twig from the ground next to her, and began mindlessly drawing shapes in the small patches of sand surrounding her.

W_here the fuck is Sophie? Isn't she supposed to be supervising us?_ Shelby wondered. The thought of spending another night down here made her want to do something drastic.

She wasn't sure how long she had been preoccupied by her sand drawings, but when Shelby looked up again, she found that Juliette was sitting up in her sleeping bag and was watching her silently.

"What?" Shelby asked harshly, raising an eyebrow as she took in the brunette's disheveled hair.

It was several moments before Juliette responded.

"I'm sorry," She said quietly. "About yesterday. When I was rude in the dorm."

Shelby didn't reply, and a silence fell over the girls for numerous minutes.

"It's alright." She responded, barely loud enough for Juliette to hear. She dropped her face back to the sand she had been drawing in, and resumed making various shapes with the twig in her hand. It was sticky, she noticed. Assuming it was covered in sap, Shelby tossed the branch to the ground and began looking for a new object to draw with.

"It was mean." Juliette continued, lowering her eyes to her hands. "I don't… really think you're a whore."

"Whatever." Shelby muttered.

**X  
**

Several hours later found the two girls fighting once again.

"You never stop acting like some 'poor me' victim all the time! Do you ever stop to look at yourself?" Shelby spat.

"Oh, yeah, and acting like a constant bitch to everyone around you is a lot better!" Juliette snapped back. "All anyone ever wants to do is help you, and you won't ever let them! Why are you even at Horizon if you refuse any form of assist people try to give you?"

"Look who's talking little Miss Princess! It must be _so _difficult living a life of privilege! As soon as mommy even says one word to you, you flee to the nearest bathroom! You're ridiculous!" Shelby shouted. She was on the verge of picking up Juliette's backpack, which lay at her feet, and throwing it across the cave at the brunette.

"At least I didn't sell my body on the streets to any lowlife pig that was willing to take me for the night!"

"I had no other fucking _choice_. I had no other way of staying alive!"

"Oh, don't even pretend like you didn't have any other options!" Juliette screeched. "You act like you're the only one here whose been raped by her stepfather!"

And at this, a silence immediately fell over the two of them.

Shelby was startled by what Juliette had just said. "What?" she asked, opening her hand to release the sand she had picked up only a few seconds ago to throw at the brunette.

Juliette was frozen where she stood, a terrified look plastered on her face. "Uh, I-" she began, but nothing came to mind. She took deep breaths, tearing her eyes away from Shelby's shocked expression to look at the ground.

"Nothing," She finally whispered, mentally punching herself in the face.

Shelby remained quiet for several minutes, before asking in a soft voice, "Did one of your stepfathers rape you?"

The blonde took Juliette's lack of response as a 'yes'. She didn't know what to say; after all this time of thinking that Juliette had lived such a privileged life, she couldn't believe what she had heard. But as Shelby thought of it, she realized it didn't sound like such a far-fetched possibility; all those different fathers. People Juliette never knew too well suddenly living with her and calling himself a part of her family. Juliette was probably left alone several times with whichever stepfather it was.

"Was it the one your mom's married to now?" Shelby finally asked.

Juliette remained motionless for several minutes before finally giving a slight shake of her head. "No."

The whispered response was so quiet that initially Shelby wasn't sure if Juliette had even answered. The blonde hesitated, unsure of what to do, before asking "Do you want to talk about it?"

Once again Juliette remained motionless, before turning her back to Shelby and collapsing to her knees. The blonde watched helplessly as the younger girl buried her face in her hands, and began to scream in anguish. Her small frame shook with heaving sobs as she curled further into herself. Pressing her forehead into the rocks beneath her, she began to beat the cave floor with her fists; her cries echoed off the cavern walls.

When she noticed Juliette's body begin to spasm uncontrollably, Shelby stumbled forward and dropped to her knees next to the younger girl. Afraid that Juliette may hurt herself, Shelby pulled the brunette against herself and tucked her head beneath her own chin; she had no other ideas of what to do.

"Come on, it's alright. You're gonna be okay." Shelby whispered, half frantically. Truthfully, Shelby was terrified; she'd never seen Juliette like this. Hell, she'd hardly ever seen anyone like this, and knowing how Juliette usually acted made Shelby even more nervous.

Eventually, Juliette's heaving sobs quieted down to soft gasps, and her body stopped shaking so violently. Shelby awkwardly released the brunette from her hold, and watched as Juliette refused to meet her eyes.

"Hey," Shelby half-whispered, wringing her hands. "Are you alright now?"

Juliette sniffled and took a deep, shaky breath before weakly nodding her head.

"Jules," Shelby said, using the brunette's one nickname she hardly ever spoke. When Juliette continued her refusal to meet the blonde's eyes, Shelby scooted closer to the other girl before continuing. "It's alright to look at me. I'm not gonna laugh at you for crying or anything."

Hesitantly, Juliette raised her head to look back at Shelby.

When Shelby saw the other girl's face, she felt her heart break for the first time for Juliette; her normally cheery eyes were bloodshot and puffy, and semi-dried tear tracks covered her cheeks. There was dirt smeared across her forehead and the tip of her nose from where she had been pressing her face into the cave floor, and a few strands of dark hair stuck to her wet lips. She reminded Shelby of her own sister, the day Jess had revealed their stepfather had sexually abused her too.

"Shit, Jules." Shelby breathed, reaching out to pull the pieces of Juliette's hair away from her mouth. "You know that's not your fault, right? He's a monster, and you didn't deserve that."

Shelby tucked the strands of hair behind Juliette's ear as the younger girl's eyes dropped to the floor once again.

"I had sex with him," she whispered, as she began to cry again. "He made me have sex with him."

"Hey, no," Shelby said, not wanting to see the brunette cry. "You did _not _have sex with him. He _raped _you; that's not the same as sex… Does your mom know?"

"She'd think I was lying." Juliette mumbled, wiping her eyes.

They sat in silence for several minutes before Shelby finally nodded her head.

"Okay. Alright, you're gonna be okay," she said, climbing to her feet. "Why don't you, uh… It's getting late, why don't you just go to sleep? Talk about it tomorrow if you want?"

Juliette nodded weakly, climbing to her feet slowly. She crawled inside of her sleeping bag and watched as Shelby leaned against the rocky wall to spend another night sleeping in such an uncomfortable position.

"Shelby?" She whispered, wondering if she was loud enough for the other girl to even hear her.

"Yeah?" the blonde responded as she turned her head to look at Juliette.

"Um, you can… I mean, if you want, since that looks so uncomfortable…you can share… my sleeping bag? And pillow? If you want to?"

"Uh," Shelby said, slightly taken back. "Sure, I guess? If you don't mind?"

The brunette smiled weakly in response, scooting as far over as she could for the other girl. The sleeping bag was clearly made for one person, but with Juliette being as small as she was, and with both of them lying on their sides, they were able to fit without being too squished. When Shelby finally settled, Juliette whispered "sorry for being such a bitch again."

"It's alright." Shelby whispered back, turning away from the other girl and closing her eyes. She stayed awake for a while, listening to Juliette's breathing eventually deepen and even out; she was afraid to fall asleep before the younger girl. She knew what Juliette sometimes did in such stressful situations like these; there were sharp rocks all over the cave floor.

**X  
**

When Shelby woke the next morning she immediately froze, feeling that something was off; it took her several moments to realize that the odd sensation pressed against her side was Juliette. Looking down, Shelby saw that she must have rolled onto her back at some point during the night, and that Juliette was now burrowed into her side; her face was hidden in the crook of Shelby's neck, and the blonde could feel her exhale against it with every breath she took.

Shelby wasn't used to this; when she was living on the streets she often woke in dirty, cheap motel rooms next to strange men, or down some leaky alleyway. When she lived at home, she woke in her own bed with horrifying memories of the night before; her stepfather always retreated to his bedroom.

Shelby shifted slightly, trying to awaken her foot which had fallen asleep. Suddenly, Juliette gave a quiet whine in her sleep, and clung to Shelby's arm. The blonde froze, unsure of what to do. Tentatively, she shook the brunette by the shoulder.

"Juliette," she whispered.

Still half asleep, Juliette hummed in response.

"Come on, get up." Shelby whispered louder, continuing to shake the other girl gently.

"Hmm? Oh, I'm sorry!" Juliette said, quickly drawing her arms back to herself when she realized what she had been doing.

Shelby sat up when she was freed from Juliette's grasp, and rubbed the sleep from her eyes. She grinned at Juliette. "You have quite the bedhead," she yawned.

Juliette quickly sat up, reaching towards her head as Shelby unzipped the side of the sleeping bag and wriggled out. The blonde situated herself on the end of the sleeping bag where Juliette's feet were, and watched as the younger girl attempted to fix her unruly hair.

When Juliette finally looked up, the two remained silent for several minutes. Eventually, Shelby asked, "Are you okay?"

Juliette dropped her gaze back to the sleeping bag and began to pull at a loose thread. Shelby quietly watched the other girl, wondering if she'd ever talk.

"I was nine," Juliette finally said, keeping her eyes on the thread she was pulling at. "He was the first... My mother trusted him… _I _trusted him."

She paused for several minutes as Shelby waited patiently.

"I didn't want to," she continued, her voice wavered as she struggled to keep her tears at bay. "My mother… she was out at the nail salon or something; I can't remember. I had… I'd been alone with him before; he never did anything before."

She reached towards her face quickly, trying to wipe her tears before they fell. Shelby considered reaching out to touch Juliette, give her some form of support or comfort, but decided against it as the brunette continued.

"I was in my room, playing with my dolls. He came into my room… and I remember he sat on my bed. He- he told me to come sit next to him, and I remember he told me he loved me. And then-"

Juliette's voice broke as she dropped her sentence. A sob escaped from her lips as she looked at Shelby.

"And then he raped me."

Shelby could barely understand the sentence from Juliette's spluttering, but she knew what she had said; knew what she felt.

"He told me I couldn't tell Mommy," she whimpered, wiping at her puffy eyes. "When my mom got home, I asked if we could buy new sheets. She asked why, but… I wouldn't tell her. I just said I didn't like them anymore; I told her I wanted pink sheets instead of purple ones. They got divorced 3 months later."

Juliette pulled her knees to her chest. Wrapping her arms around her legs, she hid her face against her them. "I still feel disgusting," she said, voice muffled.

Shelby sat watching the brunette for several minutes before being overcome by the urge to touch her. Crawling closer, she pulled Juliette against her and felt the younger girl grasp the front of her shirt in her fists.

"It's alright," she told her. "That man is the one whose disgusting, not you. It's not your fault, you know."

She felt Juliette nod against her weakly.

"I've never told… anyone. Not before this," she whispered, still clutching at Shelby's shirt.

This time it was Shelby's turn to nod. "I…I'm sorry I was so mean to you before… I just… I guess I- I only know how to be mean to people… because I'm so afraid of them finding out… and just looking at me differently," she whispered so quietly that had Juliette not been so close, she wouldn't have even heard the blonde speak.

"I'm sorry too. Again," Juliette breathed back.

They stayed where they were, wrapped in each other's clutches, for several minutes, before Juliette pulled away gently. She rubbed at her weary eyes with her fists and yawned.

"Do you mind? If I go back to sleep, that is?" Juliette asked, blinking heavily.

Shelby gave her a half smile. "Sure, go ahead."

The blonde got up off the sleeping bag to let the younger girl climb back in.

"Would you…would you sit next to me? Just until I fall asleep?" Juliette asked, slightly embarrassed.

Shelby nodded, sitting cross-legged by Juliette's pillow, as she leaned back against the wall of the cave.

**X  
**

"Shelby?"

The blonde awoke with a start, wondering when it was that she had drifted off to sleep.

"Yeah, Juliette?" she asked, stretching her arms over her head. Looking down at the girl curled in the sleeping bag, she watched as the brunette cracked an eye open to look up at her.

"What?" she questioned, voice rough with sleep.

"Didn't you just say my name?" Shelby said, puzzled.

"No, I-"Juliette began, before being cut off.

"Shelby! Juliette!?"

"Shit, it's someone up there," Shelby said, nodding towards the hole in the cave ceiling as she climbed to her feet. She hurried over to get a clearer view as Juliette scrambled after her.

"Shelby?!" a voice called down to them.

"Peter?" Shelby shouted back, attempting to shield her eyes from the sunlight to see the people above.

"Hold on! We're coming down to get you!" Peter called.

Shelby felt Juliette grasp her hand tightly.

"They found us! We're gonna be saved!" she squealed in the blonde's ear.

"Yeah," Shelby smiled back.

**X  
**

In the days following Shelby and Juliette's return to the school, the Cliffhangers, as well as Peter and Sophie, noticed that the two usually polar-opposites were no longer fighting. Not a single snide remark or rude glance was ever cast in the direction of one girl by the other.

While waiting in the shade of the gazebo on the school's front lawn for Peter and Sophie to arrive for their group session, Daisy noticed that Shelby and Juliette still had not arrived. Looking around, she spotted them across the campus talking to Peter.

"Somethin's goin' on with those two," Auggie noted, pointing his finger in the direction of the two girls.

"You know," Daisy said, her voice hushed as if someone would overhear her. "Sometimes I wake up in the middle of the night because I hear Juliette crying. And it's not to usual loud crying she does; it's really quiet." The rest of the Cliffhangers leaned in at this, wanting to hear more of the story.

"And Shelby always gets up and kneels by her bed to talk to her," Daisy continued. "Sometimes, when I wake up in the morning before either of them, I find Shelby sleeping in Juliette's bed with her, holding her. And Juliette always looks like she's been crying."

Daisy shrugged, leaning back. "Something definitely happened when they were in that cave."

**X  
**

Across campus, Shelby and Juliette were hurrying in the direction of the gazebo.

"Peter!" Shelby called out to the man walking a few yards ahead of them.

"Huh?" Peter asked, turning to face the girls. "Oh, I thought you two would be at the group already."

"Not yet," Shelby said. "Uh, can we talk to you?"

"Well group's supposed to start in just a few minutes, so why don't you tell me then?" he said, beginning to turn away.

"No!" Shelby called out, as Juliette gave a slight squeak. "We-uh, Juliette needs to talk to you now."

"Alright," Peter replied, turning back to face the girls.

Shelby nodded slightly at the brunette next to her, giving her a reassuring half-smile as she reached out to squeeze her hand.

"Peter," Juliette said, her voice shaking slightly. "I have something I have to tell you."

The End.

A short disclaimer I did not want to put at the beginning of the fic to keep from ruining any of it: As far as I am aware, I have never been raped, nor been abused in any sexual manner, so if I was wrong in any way about Juliette's reaction, please forgive me. I obviously cannot write first hand for a reaction to this type of trauma, so I did the best that I could. Thanks c:


End file.
